Monthly Archives: September 2016

Imralion should be back soon, and I’ve been working on a report to present all the investigating I’ve done together in a way that makes sense. It’s not easy because I have to walk all the way to the school each morning for a portal to the city. Aeramin was making them for me, but he’s gone with Imralion. I guess he needs to learn about the demons too for better wards or something. I think just killing them all is better.

I spent a lot of time in the Row while Imralion was gone. He would sometimes go with me when he was here, but I think he scares the people. I know I would have been scared if I saw him a few years ago. My first thought would be that they sent someone to clean up the Row, and that would mean busting people for whatever they felt like! Luckily, we haven’t had any problems though I’m sure more than one person has thought about spitting on him.

Anyway, with him gone, I’ve been able to walk around without the looks that we get when he’s with me, so that’s good. People do know me there, and that’s good too. I don’t have to try to fit in because I’m already in.

I’ve been visiting the places where we think the murderer has struck and trying to talk to the landlords. Landlords in the Row are really hard to get to see, unless they’re renting a place. I was able to talk to them first because I posed as someone interested in renting before changing the subject to the murders. I was able to get lists of the tenants from them. Some of them I had to bribe, but most cooperated because they don’t want to be in trouble.

The ones who didn’t have places for rent, I had to track down by checking the records in the spire to find out where they live. I know first hand how difficult it is to get these guys to come out. If something breaks, it’s your problem, not theirs! And they certainly don’t want to deal with the authorities coming to ask about the people living in their places.

I’ve spent a lot of time at the Spire too, double-checking the records there against what the landlords are telling me. I’ve found out that half of them don’t even report they have apartments for rent! So that’s why the Spire’s records are so bad about rentals on the Row. That meant my footwork was going to be more extensive than it had to be.

So I started, first finding out the owners of places, then finding the owners, and asking if they had anyone new rent in the past few months. I knew to start my search in the southern area of the Row first as that’s where most of the bodies had been found. Unfortunately, not all of them would give me the information I requested as there’s some thing about tenant privacy or something. So there’s a couple who wouldn’t tell me which apartments they had recently rented. I just want to knock and ask some questions! It’s not like I’m asking them to open doors and search the places. I don’t think we’re that close to finding the right place yet.

Some of the landlords were a little more helpful. One of them went with me to the newer tenant’s door and knocked. It was a family and there was nothing suspicious about that. A couple of others gave me the apartment numbers which I went to myself and knocked. Most of them answered, and again, I saw nothing suspicious. There’s a couple of others, I had to go back and check on.

There were two that I received no answer. I stayed around one spot and watched one apartment until I finally saw someone inside. Then I went and knocked, and it’s just some guy who works three different jobs. I’ve been watching the second one, but I don’t see anyone go in or leave. I’ve smelled around the door, and it doesn’t smell like there’s anyone dead in there, but then, what if someone needs help? What if they’re still alive? I can’t break in, but I’m going to feel awful if we find someone there, and it’s too late to save them.

I have to continue talking to landlords, and checking the records as well, so I can’t watch this place full-time either. If there’s no one there, I’ve already wasted enough time. But then if there is someone who needs help, I haven’t spent enough time trying to get in to help them. Maybe I can call upon a couple of friends who know a bit about locks.

Hopefully, Imralion will be back soon, and I’ll have some help, and some training. Now is a good time to apply to be a blood knight. I applied and I’ve been accepted, but they need more people who can train. I think Imralion plans to do that. I hope so anyway. He’s hot! I do hope we’ll still have time to investigate though. I really don’t want to give up now.

Salenicus looked at Orledin and shook his head, “You don’t get it, do you.”

“I get it perfectly well. You brought me here against my will.”

Salenicus turned his back to the other elf. The wait in the line for the runeforge was busy today, and of course Orledin hadn’t given him a minute of peace since their arrival at the Ebon Hold.

“And every time I point that out, someone starts ignoring me!”

Salenicus turned back around, “Look, we were asked to come here. Now we need to runeforge our weapons. We’re leaving for the Broken Isles soon, and all you can do is stand around and complain! We have work to do, Orledin. Do you see anyone else here whining?”

Orledin shut up, if only for a few seconds. Moments later he muttered, “I’d rather be baking cookies.”

“Cookies are not going to defeat the Legion!” Salenicus shouted. He was going to say more, but a large hand clasped his shoulder.

“Why don’t you let him go make his cookies?”

Salenicus brushed away the hand, and turned to look at the speaker. The tall kaldorei death knight in front of them in line looked down at him. He refused to be intimidated by the other elf’s height. “We were called here for a reason. We’re all going to the Broken Isles.”

The kaldorei shrugged, “I think the cookies sound like a better idea.”

Salenicus snorted, “Again, cookies won’t defeat the Legion.”

“No, but they make people happy. If people aren’t happy, then they don’t have much to fight for. My son loves cookies.”

Orledin raised a brow and spoke before Salenicus had a chance to, “Your son? Your family didn’t reject you?”

“My family… It’s complicated. My son is adopted, and adorable. He loves cookies, but he wouldn’t be able to eat your cookies because they’re probably poison.”

Orledin blinked, “Poison? I’d never poison anyone!”

“You’re a blood elf.”

Orledin twitched an ear, “I still wouldn’t poison anyone. I’m a professional baker, but I have a question. How did you adopt? I didn’t know there were places that would give a death knight a kid.”

Salenicus glared at Orledin.

“I’m just asking!”

The kaldorei looked down at him and answered, “I let my mate do most of the talking when we went to get him. I wear goggles to hide my eyes. A lot of people don’t look close enough to notice.”

Orledin blinked, “Your mate?”

“Yes. She’s a druid.”

“She’s alive?”

The kaldorei nodded.

“And she’s okay with you going to the Broken Isles because the Lich King said so?”

“I’m not going.”

Both Salenicus and Orledin looked at the kaldorei.

“I have to stay at home to protect the grove I live in.” The kaldorei turned and stepped forward as the human ahead of him finished with the runeforge.

Alinash sifted through the contents of another dresser in one of the houses he had been watching over the past few weeks. How many bedrooms did they have? If they had what he was looking for, it would be in a bedroom, right? He had already checked the bathroom and found little in the way of baubles and trinkets there. In the second bedroom he checked, he found some that were kept in a small box on top of one of the two dressers in the room. It didn’t contain what he was looking for, and so he put it back as he found it before checking under the clothes in the drawers. The room he checked now seemed to be a guest room, with little in the drawers except a few towels and a house robe. His ears lay back in disgust. He HAD to find it.

He left the guest room as he had found it, making sure the drawers were all closed on both the dresser and the nightstand. He crossed the hall to the next door, the final one on the second floor of the home, and turned the knob. Just as he did, he heard a noise. He ducked inside the room, leaving the door open just a crack. He stepped back away from the door enough to blend in with the shadows in the room, but close enough that he could still see out into the hallway.

A minute passed.

Two minutes passed.

He waited, taking note of his surroundings as he did. He was in the nursery. Of course, he remembered seeing them carry the young infant. They would have a room for it. That made sense. He highly doubted his bauble was in here.

Five minutes passed.

He was about to write it off as his imagination when he heard a floorboard creak in the hallway. His full attention turned back towards the door he had left ajar. He saw nothing at first. He waited.

A minute passed.

Two minutes passed.

Then he saw the quiet creature. It was small and hairy. It’s long black beard was it’s overwhelming facial feature. Alinash wasn’t sure if it was male or female. He had heard female dwarves had beards as well, and he was not interesting in assuming, nor sticking around to find out. He frowned briefly, realizing that the dwarf was probably undoing his careful replacing of items. He was not about to confront the dwarf, and since he had gone through everything and not found what he was looking for, it was very much time to leave.

He watched as the dwarf entered the guest room across the hall from the nursery. As the dwarf walked in, Alinash slipped out, and quietly made his way out of the house.

Dry twigs and leaves snapped beneath Orledin’s feet as he followed behind Sorrowmoss and Salenicus on the patrol route. Sorrowmoss had at one time tried to teach him to walk quietly, but he still didn’t know how she did it. It would help if they had day patrols, but as the undead didn’t need to sleep, they were on the night patrol. A small amount of light lit up the eastern sky. Sunrise would be soon, then he would be able to see better. Another step and another twig crackled below him. He spoke to mask his noise as he continued following the others.

“Sorrowmoss? Do you think we’ll see more demons tonight?” They had already found a couple of imps, but nothing too threatening. Orledin wasn’t sure what the Legion wanted with the Ghostlands anyway.

Sorrowmoss didn’t reply immediately, but when she did it was quiet, just loud enough that he could hear it. “If we do, we’ll take care of it.”

Orledin twitched an ear as he stepped through some old leaves covering the path. Soon there would be a new layer as fall would arrive soon. He was about to suggest they take the time to rake the leaves out of the path so it would be easier to walk quietly when he heard a voice he hadn’t heard in years.

Hear me, death knight… The chilling echo sounded so real that he wasn’t sure if it was only in his mind or if the Lich King was standing right next to him. He stopped in his tracks and looked around. He saw nothing. He looked at Sorrowmoss who seemed blissfully unaware of what Orledin had just heard, or well, as blissful as she could appear. However, Salenicus had also stopped. He turned to look at Orledin as if to say something, but the icy voice came again.

The Legion has returned to Azeroth. Return to the Ebon Hold. All will be explained there.

Orledin glanced again at Sorrowmoss who had stopped walking now and turned with her hands on her hips. “The patrol route is this way.”

Orledin looked back towards Salenicus in time to see him start to open a death gate back to the hold.

“No! No, no, no. Wait. What are you doing?”

“Going to the Ebon Hold. You heard it too. I can tell by the way you stopped talking.”

“Uh, well, yeah. I- I heard it, but we don’t need to go. We’re rangers. We have work here.” Orledin glanced again at Sorrowmoss who watched them with a puzzled look. The shadows in the forest behind her shifted ominously in the early morning light.

“We are needed elsewhere. We may be rangers, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t still death knights.”

“Just because we’re death knights doesn’t mean we can’t be something else. Are you going to listen to every disembodied mind voice in your head for the rest of time? I gained something that I’m not going to throw away just because some dead guy says to go somewhere, and that is free will! I like being a ranger. What if the Lich King told you to jump into the sea and sink down to the bottom for the rest of eternity?”

Salenicus twitched an ear, “That’s not funny. Come on.” He grabbed Orledin’s wrist and pulled him through the death gate just as the first rays of sun broke over the horizon, leaving Sorrowmoss to finish the patrol on her own.

A new school semester has started. We do have one new student, a woman by the name of Oline. She is interested in frost magic, which is good. We have so many fire students, but only a couple of frost and arcane. I might have to start declining fire students just to keep Aeramin’s students at a reasonable number.

Especially right now since he’s gone. He asked for some time off to take a trip to Tanaris. For some reason, they think there’s more to research there, and if they know what they’re making wards for, they can make stronger wards. I don’t think that’s all the reason. Kestrae, Xanaroth and Vallindra went with him, after all. At least he took Imralion too, so hopefully he can keep him from doing anything too stupid, or at least save him before anything bad happens when he does.

Anyway, that leaves Maerista teaching the fire classes, both group and private lessons, alone. I was going to ask Desdeyliri to help her out with some of the easier stuff, but I decided not to because Des is probably going on a trip soon too. Maybe Keya can help. I’ll ask Raleth if he can spare him. Neither Des nor Keya are very good with fire, but they could teach beginning theory.

Des will be taking a short trip soon because her wedding to Perothis is coming up. They wanted to wait until after Kestrae and Ordinicus got married and that just happened before Kestrae went on the trip to Tanaris! It was such a beautiful wedding. It was warm and the day was perfect. Tik and Terellion had decorated the garden, and Tik made the spinach rolls again. They’re so good! Kes was beautiful in her dress. I am so happy for both her and Ordinicus.

Anyway, Kes is on the trip now, and Ordinicus is back to work on building things with Ethirdir and Ithorel. I think they’re almost done with the new cabin and stable at the rangers. I have a feeling that fall will come late, but fast. By that I mean while it might still be warm now, when it does get cold, it’s going to get cold fast. If it’s a normal fall, there will be lots of rain too. Hopefully, all of the building work will be done by then!

We’re watching Lyorri during the day. She’s so cute! I thought Narise and her would play together, but they like to fight over the same toy a lot. It’s okay though, I bought some more toys and I got two of each. That way, they can each have one. Ordinicus picks her up at the end of the day and takes her home until the next morning. I’m usually teaching during the day, so Terellion winds up watching her more than I do.

I miss being able to carry Narise around in her sling. I still can, but she usually wants to get down after a bit, and that gets disruptive if I’m trying to teach, so she’s spending more time with Ter too.

He’s been watching them really close. There are demons in the area. I guess they’re all over. I am afraid, but I can’t show it. I have to be strong for my girls and the students and everyone, but sometimes I feel like curling up and crying about it. I don’t want anything to happen here! I worry that my wards aren’t strong enough, though the one I have up now is so draining, I barely have enough energy left to make sure my sister has her ward refreshed every week, and now I have to take care of the wards at the rangers too, at least until Aeramin gets back. I’ve been taking a more passive teaching role in the private lessons because of this too. Instead of demonstrating the spell they’re learning, I tell them what to do and watch them try. I don’t like doing it that way, but I think it’s better if I’m not too exhausted. If demons did get through the wards, I will need to be strong enough to fight them.

I don’t want the girls to be afraid, but I do want them to be safe, so we explained the situation to both of them. I don’t think Narise really understands much yet, but Malwen does. She’s almost nine already. She said she wasn’t afraid, but then she thought she saw an imp outside her bedroom window. I think it was unlikely because not only were the wards not tripped, but her bedroom is on the second floor. It can’t just stand out there and look in! We didn’t question it though, and now she has a spot to sleep set up in our room. We also keep the door between Narise’s room and ours open so that we can hear her better. If that’s what it takes to make them feel safe then that’s what we’ll do.

I do kind of miss having some alone time with Ter. We did have a date the other day. Aeramin and Xanaroth had asked if I could provide them with a portal to Tanaris. I can, and I did, but it was tricky. What they don’t know is that I can teleport to the bronze dragon lair there. Renner took me there a couple of times. There were other dragons there and they looked at me like I was a pet or something. Anyway, I didn’t want to drop a group of summoners off in the middle of a dragon lair. I mean, I don’t think the dragons would like that, and I’d have to explain how I knew how to make a portal there to Aeramin and the others. It’s certainly something I don’t want Vallindra knowing! So I decided I would have to go there and look for a different spot.

Of course, when I told Ter, he wanted to come with me. I decided it might be safer if I could find someone else who could make a portal there to a safe location without dragons. That way, Ter and I wouldn’t be wandering around a demon-infested desert looking for a quiet place to make a portal to.

That’s when I got the idea that we should have a date in Silvermoon. We had lunch by ourselves and visited the market. After that, I suggested going to the reliquary place. I think he was a little confused about why until I started asking questions about Tanaris there. Anyway, they do have a camp there, and they have a mage who helps them get there and back. I asked to speak to the mage, gave him some gold, and got a portal there. We only had to be there a few minutes for me to familiarize myself with the place. I knew my wards would be weaker while I was away too, so this way was really the best, as we weren’t gone long. Also, we didn’t see a single demon while we were there. The people at the camp said they’re further north.

I do hope everything works out. The Spire has replied and accepted our application for exemption. They did write and state that if circumstances become greatly worsened, they may still call upon us, but for now, they shouldn’t be asking anyone at the school to go.

The bad news is that the same day I got the letter from the Spire, I also got a letter from my father. He is going. I should go see him before he does. He also wrote that Aranae wrote and there was trouble at the bear place, but she’s okay.

I hope the bear place has good mages and that they’ve put up some wards. Maybe I should write to her and suggest it.